Stern NYC schoolmarm-in-chief Mike Bloomberg is trying to crack down on the practice of NYPD officers making tickets disappear as a favor to friends. Clearly, this is an outrageous assault on the police. Why does Mike Bloomberg hate courtesy?

A "culture of courtesy" is the fun little term that the police sergeant's union chief gives to the proposition that says regular people should pay tickets, but people who are famous or important or influential or just happen to know a cop should not pay tickets. In fact, the union's entire response is a (very) thinly-veiled threat to those same influential people: challenge us on this issue, and we are going to name all you fuckers who asked us to fix your tickets. Let's just sweep this all under the rug, k? Besides, the union chief tells the NYT, this is not even corrupt!

Mr. Mullins, in claiming that the ticket-fixing did not qualify as corruption, said he had never heard of an officer's taking a bribe in exchange for fixing a ticket. He said it might be time to change the department's culture, but argued against any move to criminalize its longstanding behavior.

Right, right. Things are only criminal if people other than cops or cops' friends do them. Who's really in the wrong here: the ticket fixers, or the ticket fixees? Hmm... fuck both of them.